Player tracking programs are offered at gaming establishments for various reasons, including the desire to attain and/or maintain a player's interest in game play. (Although there are many types of gaming establishments, including casinos, cruise ships, riverboats, etc., all types of gaming establishments may be referred to herein as “casinos.”) Player tracking programs provide rewards to players that typically correspond to the player's level of patronage, e.g., to the player's playing frequency and/or total amount of game plays at a given casino. Player tracking rewards may include free meals, free lodging and/or free entertainment. Some such complimentary rewards are often referred to as “comps.” Player tracking rewards may help to sustain a game player's interest in additional game play during a visit to a gaming establishment and may entice a player to visit a gaming establishment to partake in various gaming activities.
Player tracking programs may be applied to any game of chance offered at a gaming establishment. In particular, player tracking programs are very popular with players of mechanical slot gaming machines and video slot gaming machines. In a gaming machine, a player tracking program is implemented using a player tracking unit installed in the gaming machine and in communication with a remote player tracking server.
Due to their increasing popularity, player tracking cards and player tracking programs have essentially become the de facto marketing method of doing business at casinos. As suggested above, a player's incentive for using the player tracking services is awards provided by the gaming machine operator (e.g., the casino). Some incentives of a casino for providing player tracking services is to generate “brand” loyalty, gather valuable information that may be used for marketing and provide better customer services. This is due to the fact that the programs allow a casino to identify and reward customers based upon their previous game play history. In particular, a goal of the casinos is to identify and then to provide a higher level of service to certain groups of players identified as especially valuable to the casinos.
Gaming establishments are continually searching for new and innovative techniques to track patron activity to improve casino operations and marketing. Thus, while current tracking systems are adequate, they are limited mainly to wagering game play. It would be desirable to provide more versatile player tracking methods and devices.